GEMS, Necklaces and My Best Buddy!

YES, I am selling these on ebay...for a fraction of their value. Do I need the cash?  Yes.  Appearing on the left is old-stock Tiger's Eye Agate with mesmerizing heliotrope chatoyancy. It also goes by the name of Iron Stone, and this particular chunk was formed in Australia.  Fascinating as its ever-changing bands are, it's over shadowed by the crystals in the Ocean Wave Jasper  and the finely colored spiderweb turquoise teardrops.  I offered my best-ever childhood friend any of my hundreds of necklaces she wanted...and she shunned these two stunning creations and went for a dozen of my simplest treasures.  She deliberated for quite a while.  She's modeling one of her choices below, a "Dragon's Blood" agate.



It was hard work deciding. Can you see how my Buddy struggled? See if it's easier for you to decide which is the nicest. Just look me up on ebay using the "Advanced Search" and type in my Seller Name: RunningHorse48...and see what's currently offered. (It changes all of the time.) 
Both my Buddy and I have a long history of admiring, collecting and now wearing beautiful stones. I had to part with my gem, fossil and rock collection to move into the RV. The hardest to give up were the geodes, particularly the Thunderegg collection. Having so many Thunderegg Slice Necklaces helped me survive the separation crisis. So how did we get our energy back from our decision making? ...by going to The Olive Garden, where the menu asked us for much simpler choices.

 I had my own hard choices to make.  I would love to stay with my Best Buddy in Arizona forever, but it was time to fly to Salt Lake City to visit my children and the growing-up-to-fast grandkids.  The views during my flight almost overwhelmed me with their intriguing geology.  The one above is of an area in a protection battle right now.

 This view from the plane is THE GOAL:  Hike Mountain Timpanogos with as many of the family who can stand the all-day hike.  I signed up at Gold's Gym as soon as the plane landed to get closer to this goal!

 The grandkids look so grown-up compared to my last personal assessment.  And they seemed more interested in the big screen than their grandma...except baby Zeke.  He's made of love!

Can you read the words on this cake?  Maybe they did miss me after all.  They still like chocolate cake, I do know that.  Look at the picture below to see how little chocolate missed their mouths.

The grandbaby who changed the most while I was off camphosting was baby Izzy.  She was now bigger than her baby dolls!

So...It's wonderful to be among my extra-darling family again...but there's still the hard matter of making a living.   As a grandma, it's so important to buy toys, and more toys.  Please remember to look me up on ebay using the "Advanced Search",  type in my Seller Name: RunningHorse48...and see if there's something that interests you.  Thank you!....sincerely.

Camp Hosts - Is there such a thing as a bad one?

Are you kidding? Camp Hosts are the hardest working, friendliest, most giving people we have ever worked with. And we've had a TON of jobs. (Just look at our business card collection some time.) Here at Bahia Honda they work until they are soaked in sweat or rain (or both) despite ravenous, agressive mosquitoes, plastic-eating rats, scorpions and never-ending beach garbage that washes in from ??? (We don't know where from, or we could send it back.) Above Thel is happily greeting visitors from all over the world in the Nature Center, and Theresa has just ended a tough shift of cleaning bathrooms, shower houses, emptying garbage, picking up trash, etc., and she's still here with her generous smile...ready to give you a hug, if you're needing one.

The EZ-Go electric vehicles cost thousands of dollars per year to maintain. The high UV index, coral dust and gusting salty sea winds keep the repairs coming. The keys are made of the remains of an ancient coral reef, so the tires don't have a chance running over cutting coral chunks. We know! Our first day on the job we had a huge "firecracker" thrown under our EZ-Go, and we came to a sudden halt....only to discover a front tire had blown out (with a BOOM) after its coral encounter.

So...did I answer the question? Are there bad hosts? NO, emphatically, "no"....we have never found a bad camp host...after a life time of camping. My hypothesis: They don't exist, so the question was not necessary.

Job Duties of a Camp Host

First, saturate yourself with the beauty.  This is the entrance view for Redman Campground.

  
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Keep a clean host site.  It's so tempting to pile up your "tools

of the trade" under and around your RV or trailer.  Don't do it!

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Learn all you can about your inventory--know which sites would match a given camper's specific needs.  This site is a double (for groups of up to 16 people) with an extensive trail system behind it....leading to magical forest, stream and meadow adventures.  You also need to know it has great parking for a large RV or trailer.

  

Taking photos of Camp Sites

Site 25 - All-time favorite, by the Creek



You also will probably paint tables, clean out fire pits, remove ashes and garbage from stoves and/or grills and pick up all trash (anything not "natural")...oh, and of course clean the Potties.

A fun job is taking photos for Recreation.com and ReserveAmerica.com so they can post them online to inform campers of what they are reserving.  The best duty, though is to meet and greet campers.  They are so very enjoyable!  In the above picture I'm sharing some of my favorite necklaces with our wonderful campers.  We're grateful for every visitor!  Please stop by our host site and chat.    :]

Finally, no matter how trashed someone leaves their camp site....don't forget to smell the roses. 

(These are at our entrance gate....totally natural, of course.)